ECAC Hockey Power Rankings (2/11/13)

by Ryan Fay

Parity is the name of the game in the ECAC this year. Only six points separate second place Yale from the two teams tied for 10th place (Colgate, Brown).

Lets see how the teams stack up with only three more regular season weekends to go:

1. QUINNIPIAC (21-3-4 overall, 13-3-2 ECAC) LAST WEEK (LW): 1
The Bobcats went on the road and beat Cornell, 4-1, on Friday before outlasting Colgate, 3-2, on Saturday. The wins were no surprise as Quinnipiac has yet to lose a true road game all season long (10-0-2). It's a good thing the team was on the road with reports of 40 inches of snow in their home city of Hamden, CT.

2. YALE (13-6-3, 9-5-1) LW: 2
Yale only had one game on the weekend docket (at Brown), but it was postponed to tomorrow due to the powerful winter storm that rocked New England. With Yale potentially without goaltender Jeff Malcolm, and the way Anthony Borelli has been playing in net for Brown, it could be a very intriguing matchup.

3. RPI (12-11-5, 7-6-3) LW: 5
The Engineers were in the North Country to battle a couple surging teams in St. Lawrence and Clarkson. The Saints entered the weekend 4-0-2 in their last six and Clarkson was 2-1-2 in their last five. That didn't phase RPI, which won a 4-3 overtime thriller in Canton on Friday before 6-2 thrashing of Clarkson the next night. Five of RPI's top six scorers are either freshmen or sophomores and breakout goaltender Jason Kasforf is another freshman. This is a team with a lot of upside the next couple years.

4. ST. LAWRENCE (13-11-4, 6-6-4) LW: 4
The Saints may have lost a nail biter to RPI on Friday, but they made up for it the next night. St. Lawrence came out firing and knocked Union out of the game with three first period goals. Union head coach Rick Bennett told me that St. Lawrence's Greg Carey, who had a goal and an assist on Saturday, has one of the quickest releases he's seen in college hockey in a long time. And defenseman Gunnar Hughes, who Bennett thought was "really underrated," must have been looking to shed that tag when his first period goal ended up being the eventual game-winner.

5. BROWN (8-9-5, 4-6-5) LW: 6
Brown's lone game (vs Yale) was pushed back to tomorrow due to inclement weather. Brown lost to Yale, 4-3, back on Dec. 1 but bring a three game unbeaten streak (2-0-1) into tomorrow's pivotal contest.

6. UNION (13-10-5, 6-4-4) LW: 3
Since Nov. 30, the two-time defending league champions are just 5-8-4. Thoughts of a third straight Cleary Cup are long dead, but now a first round bye is in jeopardy after laying an egg in the North Country. A 2-1 loss at Clarkson preceded a 4-2 setback at St. Lawrence and the Dutchmen never lead in either game. Union's goals per game have gone down each month this season: 4.00 (Oct), 3.57 (Nov), 2.80 (Dec), 2.25 (Jan), 1.67 (Feb). Even the penalty kill has failed the Dutchmen lately, as the PK is just 6-for-13 in the past three outings.

7. PRINCETON (9-10-4, 7-6-3) LW: 9
Princeton entered the weekend with just one road win all season long. So what did the Tigers do? They traveled to Colgate and Cornell and picked up more road wins in two days than they had in the previous four-plus months. That's ECAC hockey for you.

8. COLGATE (13-11-4, 5-8-3) LW: 7
Colgate is limping to the finish line. The Raiders are on a four game winless streak (0-2-2) and only have two wins in their last eight contests (2-4-2). The team entered the weekend 10-3 at home, but dropped back to back home contests to Princeton and Quinnipiac. The good news is the next three teams on the schedule (Harvard, Dartmouth, Union) aren't exactly lighting it up either. The Colgate power play, usually one of the best in the league, went 0-for-9 over the weekend.

9. DARTMOUTH (11-8-4, 7-6-3) LW: 8
Dartmouth picked up the dubious distinction of being the first ECAC team not to beat Harvard since Cornell did so nearly three months ago. The Big Green, which have all of one win in their past six games, skated to a 1-1 draw at Harvard on Sunday. Dartmouth has scored more than two goals just once in that span (5 vs Clarkson).

10. CLARKSON (7-14-7, 6-7-3) LW: 10
Allan McPherson scored two of Clarkson's four goals this weekend and was assisted by Ben Sexton and Will Frederick on both of them. The Golden Knights go back on the road and battle Princeton and Quinnipiac next weekend. Clarkson's single game high in goals this season (7) came in a 7-2 romp of Princeton on Nov. 17.

11. HARVARD (5-15-2, 3-12-1) LW: 12
The Crimson finally notched their first league point since November, but the best news coming out of the program over the weekend was former standout Alex Killorn ('12) getting promoted to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Killorn, who had 109 points in four seasons in Cambridge, collected 39 points in 43 games for Syracuse (AHL) prior to the bump.

12. CORNELL (8-13-2, 4-10-2) LW: 11
Saturday's 1-0 loss to Princeton was a microcosm of Cornell's prolonged dry spell. The Big Red outshot Princeton 39-12, including 9-0 in the third period, but still lost. Cornell is 1-10 over their past 11 games with the only win coming via a 3-2 triumph at Messa Rink on January 18th.